A government project will develop an accessible decision support system that can generate management and governance plans for the Seven Lakes of San Pablo City in Laguna.
The project, “Decision Support System (DSS) for Effective Lake Governance of the Seven Small Crater Lakes in San Pablo City, Laguna,” funded by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD) is being implemented by the College of Public Affairs and Development (CPAf) of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). UPLB-CPAf Dean Dr. Rowena DT. Baconguis leads the project.
The DSS project will examine the past governance and management of the lakes and will develop a decision support system for communities and other stakeholders to better manage these resources.
To launch the implementation of the project, an inception meeting was held on March 17, 2022 via Zoom. The project team shared that most of the existing literature on small lakes focused on biophysical characteristics, oftentimes overlooking the historical, social, and cultural dimensions of human-environment interaction and governance. These studies, as well as the management plans, initially created for the lakes, might no longer be applicable to the present context of the small lake communities. The DSS project will address these gaps and develop a system for effective lake governance based on current data.
The project will use the Adaptive Integrated Lake Basin Management Framework and the Water Evaluation and Planning Model, both involving a participative approach to applied research. The team will work with stakeholders of the lakes, from residents to government officials and will conduct a series of training sessions to better capacitate stakeholders in using the DSS. A knowledge-sharing platform will also be pursued later in the project to ensure sustainable use of the DSS by lake managers.
The project team plans to first develop the DSS for Sampaloc, the largest of the seven lakes, and then scale it out to other lakes, accounting for the nuances of each.
The inception meeting was also attended by external project evaluator, Dr. Rafael Guerrero III; resource persons from the DOST-PCAARRD-Inland Aquatic Resources Research Division, Dr. Adelaida Calpe and Ms. Janet Jane Valguna; and from the UPLB College of Arts and Sciences, Prof. John Vincent Pleto and Dr. Ronilo Jose Flores.
The DSS project started its implementation on March 1, 2022 and is expected to conclude by February 29, 2024. The project is being monitored by the Socio-Economics Research Division of DOST-PCAARRD.